Observations

The Chargers needed all members on the offensive line to help keep quarterback Philip Rivers upright. It was a bit of a challenge as they were dominated in the trenches by the Steelers defensive line all night long. Nonetheless, all five starters played the entire game with 63 snaps. Sam Tevi filled in nicely for Joe Barksdale, who now plays for the Cardinals.

Keenan Allen was hot, and there was no point of taking him out after posting up a stat line of 14 receptions for 148 yards and a touchdown. Allen led all receivers with 58 snaps. Tyrell Williams played the second most with 50, but he only had a catch for 14 yards.

Austin Ekeler came into the game as the No. 1 RB with the absence of Melvin Gordon, but failed to deliver a solid outing after playing 49 of the offensive snaps. The emergence of Justin Jackson was lights out as the rookie RB rushed for 63 yards on eight carries and a touchdown on just 14 snaps.

It was a quiet game for the tight ends. Virgil Green once again led the group with 41 snaps. Antonio Gates had 24, while Sean Culkin only played 11. They failed to reel in a catch, with the exception of Gates’ successful two-point conversion.

Jahleel Addae was the only defensive player to play all 68 snaps. Derwin James only sat out a play, ending up with 67 and Adrian Phillips saw the field for 57 snaps.

The cornerback position struggled to cover Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. A large part of that was Michael Davis’ poor performance. Davis saw the field for 67 snaps, while Trevor Williams only played one. Casey Hayward led the group with 66.

The pass rush failed to get anything going until late in the game. Melvin Ingram tallied up 66 of the team’s snaps. Joey Bosa saw another uptick, finishing with 57. Ingram and Bosa both struggled against Alejandro Villenueva and Matt Feiler. Bosa was held quite a bit, which they didn’t get penalized for.

The interior defensive line remained interchangeable as per usual. Damion Square led the defensive tackles with 42, Darius Philon was right behind with 41. Justin Jones played 28 and T.Y. McGill only saw the field for ten snaps.

Jatavis Brown was once again the heart and soul of the linebackers, leading the way with 60 snaps played. Brown led the team with 11 tackles. Adrian Phillips was used as a LB quite often, too. Uchenna Nwosu and Kyle Emanuel both finished with 12 at the SAM. Hayes Pullard played eight of the snaps.

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